Teacher fear of litigation for actions to maintain order in schools

For two decades, tort reform organizations have claimed that fear of litigation unduly limited educators' disciplinary actions. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which teachers perceive that fear of litigation limits their discipline actions. The secondary purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which this perception differs by time period, item type, and demographic characteristics.;The study used a national sample of 1080 teachers, equally divided by school setting and school level. Of this sample, 56% responded to a mail survey of a researcher-developed questionnaire that contained one generalized and four scenario-specific items related to a student fight. Respondents rated their perceptions of limitation based upon fear of litigation using a six point Likert-type scale ranging from not at all to very much.;For all five items, teachers perceive little to very little limitation on disciplinary actions due to fear of litigation. Perceptions of little limitation based upon generalized fear appear to be more uniform than 20 years ago. Teachers also perceive a greater fear of litigation for nonintervention than for intervention. This difference is greater when teachers consider their own actions rather than other teachers' actions. For the self-nonintervention scenario, rural teachers are significantly more fearful than urban teachers and elementary teachers are significantly more fearful than secondary teachers.;The results do not support the claims that a "paralyzing fear" of litigation severely hampers the disciplinary actions of teachers. The disciplinary decisions of educators involve a complex reasoning process that depends upon the context of the scenario. Future research into other job-embedded scenarios would determine whether fear of litigation influences teacher actions in higher litigation areas such as special education and also provide insight into teacher professional development needs.